A night to remember: On Saint Mary's first annual Lithuania Night, Paulius Murauskas put on a show, earning 30 points and 10 rebounds. / Photo by Tod Fierner for SMC Athletics
Lithuanians Shine on the First Annual Lithuania Night, as Gaels Down Washington State 77–56
Augustas Marciulionis and Paulius Murauskas owned their spotlight moment, leading the team to victory. The Gaels remain No. 1 in the West Coast Conference. And with 23 wins, they join the winningest college teams this season.
On Saturday night, the Saint Mary's Gaels (23–4, 13–1 West Coast Conference) honored their connection with the country of Lithuania—two student-athletes Augustas Marciulionis and Paulius Murauskas and Graduate Assistant Taut Tubelis—with the first annual Lithuania Night. Murauskas and Marciulionis returned the favor by leading the Gaels to a 77–56 victory over the Washington State Cougars (16–11, 6–8 WCC). The Gaels now move to 20–0 when scoring 70+ points in the game and continue to hold a two-game lead on first place in the conference.
It was a slow start for the Gaels, who fell behind 10–3 in the early going. But, with Murauskas shouldering the load, Saint Mary's turned the seven-point deficit into a nine-point lead with a 25–9 run. Murauskas scored 13 of those 25 points. Washington State rediscovered their footing to level things at 34 apiece, but the Gaels closed out the half with two more Murauskas layups to take a four-point lead into the break.
With Saturday night's win, Saint Mary's has now notched 23 victories on the year. They join the likes of Drake (23–2), Auburn (23–2), Utah State (23–3), and High Point (23–5) for most wins thus far in the college basketball season.
Outscoring and outrebounding
The Gaels turned their 4–0 spurt in the first half into a 20–2 run overall, expanding their lead to 18 points at the 15:15 mark of the first half. By the midway point of the second half, the Gaels had outscored the Cougs 30–14 in the frame, expanding their lead out to 20. Washington State went on their game best 8–0 run to cut the deficit to 12, but that was as close as it would be over the final 10 minutes. An Augustas Marciulionis three with 90 seconds left gave the Gaels the 21 point lead to finish the evening.
Marciulionis led the Gaels with 12 second-half points on 4–5 shooting while adding four dimes and two steals. Paulius Murauskas added 10 more to his impressive total, while ripping down five rebounds. After seeing Washington State matched SMC's intensity in the paint in the first half, the Gaels outscored the Cougs 24–12 in the paint in the second stanza. With so much production in close, the Gaels shot 54% from the field in the second half, while limiting WSU to 30%.
Plenty of points to go around
In what's been an incredible season already for Paulius Murauskas, he put together the best game of his career, with 30 points on 12–19 shooting and 10 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the season. Fellow Lithuanian Augustas Marciulionis chipped in 16, seven assists, and four steals, continuing to stuff the stat sheet for the Gaels. Jordan Ross was the third Gael in double-figures, with 12 points and three steals. Saint Mary's logged a season-best eight blocks, with three belonging to Ashton Hardaway and two to Harry Wessels.
For the second time in his Gael career, Paulius Murauskas had no problem scoring against Washington State. After dropping 25 points and 12 rebounds at Beasley Coliseum three weeks ago for his ninth double-double on the season, the Kaunas, Lithuania native upped the ante with a career-high 30 points and 10 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the year. In two games vs the Cougs this season, Murauskas has averaged 27.5 PPG and 11.0 RPG. His 30 points on Saturday made him the first Gael since Logan Johnson (February 2023 at Portland) to score 30 in a single game, as he surpassed his previous high of 29 scored against Utah this past December.
Padding the defensive stats
Saint Mary's had a season-high eight blocks and finished one of their season-high for steals, with 11. The eight blocks were the most by a Gaels team since the opener last season against Stanislaus State, while the 11 steals mark the Gaels fifth double-digit steals game this year. Leading the blocking front were a pair of key reserves, Ashton Hardaway and Harry Wessels. Hardaway logged a career-high three, while Wessels logged a pair, giving him 10 rejections in the last five games.
Augustas Marciulionis played the lead pick-pocket role, tying his career-high with four steals, giving him 15 over his last four games, while Jordan Ross took away a career-high three and Mitchell Saxen snagged two. The 11 steals helped the Gaels outscore the Cougs 22–7 off of turnovers (SMC only tuned the ball over six times) and 18-7 in fast break points.
On the heels of the weekend's games, the Gaels found themselves ranked No. 24 nationally in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The beginning of the week also found Saint Mary's in top 20 in NCAA NET rankings. Along with winning percentage, the NET rankings take into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses. For the NCAA, it's both a results-driven and predictive metric.
UP NEXT: The Gaels host Portland on Wednesday, February 19. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Come out and support the Gaels at the UCU Pavillion or tune in live on ESPN+.
Story updated on February 18, 2025 at 1:45 p.m. to note current rankings.
